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I Just realised I last posted here last month and we are already past the middle of March! Where is time running to? If you have noticed, I have been sharing a lot of warm hearty soups, stews and hot beverages. So here is a healthy snack to accompany your hot beverages or just something to snack on. This is as simple as you can get. If you eat a lot of pumpkins, just save the seeds, dry them and toast them after. I always make these every time I have pumpkins.

Wantyouwillneed:

Dried pumpkin seeds

About a tablespoon of water

Salt

Paprika

Black pepper Method

Add all the ingredients in a heavy cast pan and mix till all the seeds are well coated. On medium heat, keep stirring the seeds till they are completely dry, have browned and are starting to pop. It will take around 20 minutes. Remove from fire and continue stirring till the seeds are fully cool and crunchy. Serve.

Happy new Year dear readers! We are starting off the year with great comfort food.
​If you live in East Africa, then you most certainly have eaten the hearty tasty combination that is chapati and beans. We even have a slang term for it: Kikomando. I cannot count the many times I have had kikomando for supper after long days of work with no desire to cook. Guilty I know!

But let’s be honest guys, flaky soft chapatis doused in a rich creamy bean stew with possibly a side of velvety avocado is what dreams are made of. The definition of comfort food. I could go on and on but I am just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Today I am sharing the recipe for the bean stew. Because I figured it will require a separate blog post for the chapati. I am also seriously considering making a video of the chapati recipe. Let me know in the comments below if a video is what you would prefer.

After cooking beans for as long as I can remember, some of the basic rules to get the best bean stew are:

Make sure the beans a preboiled till soft and tender.

Don’t discard the water( stock?) used to boil the beans. It will help thicken the stew.

A slow simmer always produces the best stew with cream on top!

Whatyouwillneed:

2 C. Beans, boiled and drained

2 C. Bean stock (the water used to boil them)

2 Large tomatoes, diced

1 Large onion diced

1 Clove of garlic, crushed

Salt and pepper

Palm oil (the orange kind)

Method

Place pan on high heat. Add the oil and onions. Let the onions fry till translucent. Add the tomatoes. Let them cook till tender. Keep stirring to avoid burning. Add the beans, salt and pepper and keep stirring. Next add the bean stock. And let it boil. Once it has boiled, reduce the fire and let the stew simmer down till almost all the water is reduced to half and has thickened well. Remove from fire and serve with your delicious chapati.

2017 has been wonderful, for a lack of a better world really. Every year since I started food blogging, I have challenged myself to know more about the food that makes up this great country. In my quest, I have discovered a myriad of information. Hands down Ugandan food is the definition of comfort food and we still have the greatest high quality local produce. Produce that retains flavor and does not need a whole range of seasoning to taste sublime. It is with this produce that I have based most, if not all, of my creations and dishes on. Because we need to know the treasure we have within before someone else gets to it, if they haven’t already.
One day, I was shopping in Nakasero market and decided to buy some ginger. I was shocked a month later to realize that the ginger was still in good shape, not even withered at all. It shocked and scared me and I wonder how these imported goods that we have so much regard for are grown?

I listen to the BBC food chain podcast and in one episode, they were talking about African cuisine and why it isn’t popular and in the mainstream food media, as compared to say Asian, Latin American, and French food etc. And as I continued to listen, there are plenty of factors involved like, the power dynamics, propaganda and the world’s perspective of Africa as a whole. If you notice, the more popular countries on the continent get to have their food popularized as a result. I could go on and on about this but what I know that we can do as a nation is to take matters into our own hands and rave about how great out food is. Because it is! Leverage social media and blogging to talk about the national treasure we have that is food. That is the only way we can let everyone out there and within know and hopefully come see for themselves just like how we put the Rolex on the world food map.

I feel like, with A Kitchen in Uganda, I have just scratched only the surface. There are so many more dishes that I have not gotten a chance to taste from the east, north and west of Uganda. It is my dream to fully explore this dynamic food culture and I hope you too make it a priority. I am grateful that you took your time to read the posts and look at the photographs that have graced this blog for over 4 years now. I can only hope for a grand 2018.

I am taking a 4-week break from the blog to unplug, evaluate 2017 and generate great ideas for the coming year.

Happy Holidays.

PS: Tell me in the comments below how you plan on spending your holiday?